I know you can fund with less, or could when it was straight up TOS anyhow. I believe it’s $2k to have a margin account. See the link below for more on what margin means.
There are fees for everything. For forex you’ll pay the price in the spread between bid and ask. All other trading vehicles use an actual commission fee. With stocks you have to pay a fee for buys and sales. You’re probably looking at $10 per round depending on the rate they are at now for commish. This is the main reason why small accounts tend to suffer, because $10 in % terms can be a big deal to a small account. Also, no matter what you open with expect to lose it. The best advice I can give is understand that when you trade that money can evaporate and you should have mentally written it off as “risk capital”. And focus on what you can LOSE not what you can gain.
TOS used to negotiate. I pay $5 per side so $10 per round on stocks. I also have pretty cheap options fees. Futures I trade through Infinity AT at $5 per round.
Try and talk them down. Tell them you’re not going to trade pink sheets/penny stocks because I know they used to charge more for that. You don’t want to dick with pinks/pennies either…trust me.
If the DOW can’t close the year above 11,500 I would be rather concerned about the next 5-10 years (or beyond). If you’re a debtor you’d better hope for a big year end rally.
Why 11,500? Because that is the line in the sand that capped the tech bubble back in 1999-2000. To close below that level would indicate that it was yet again resistance, psychological resistance at minimum if not a true supply based resistance.
Keeping in mind we are in a 2-3 year bailout induced uptrend, yet an uptrend none the less. The current candle on the yearly chart is bizarre for such a long timeframe. It shows a rejection of both lower AND higher prices, aka indecision. That said, my gut is to worry about the failure to hold momentum considering the underlying upward trend. Price probed quite high and to be rejected as sharp as it has doesn’t look good for the bulls IMO.
Charts to follow later when I’m on my trading machine.
I have been doing really well on ETF’s with the current trading in range. Buying TVIX on the rallies when the S&P is pushing 1300 and selling on the pullbacks when it gets down near 1100. Also looking pretty good on a UCO trade at 26.xx in the beginning of October.
The main stream media is finally picking up on how Fuxored Europe is, the next few months should be interesting. (Not like the last few years haven’t been.)
Laws of supply & demand would seem to indicate a correction is needed in gold. Higher prices aren’t drawing out volume and volume is the lifeblood of an auction. Either way it’s safe to say gold is consolidating and a volatility increase is coming. The current macro trend is bullish and most would be best to wait and let that break before shorting. Don’t sell support just as you shouldn’t buy resistance.
Nice Joe. Silver is worth a shot long here IMO. Remember I have a bearish bias and pegged the top at 9/6 so I’m not a metal fluffer.
Buy support, sell resistance. Do that and bet to much per position and you’ll beat the odds.
What’s your timeframe on silver? I’ve actually been looking into it with a club money play on buying ZSL puts since once these leveraged ETF’s tank, they tank hard, but don’t know whether to shoot for Feb’s or May’s.
I am looking at physical personally…very long term. I intend to buy puts when things get toppy to try and insulate the risk and grab some profits to re-invest in physical. It’s a tough call because the bond yields really don’t support stock recovery theory and I could see stagnation or deflation more likely than inflation at this point. And I know you’re aware of deflation pulling everything down in it’s undertow.
Hes completely right… sounds like a smart guy to me. The few times Ive posted in here I’ve said go into long term treasury bond its safe and in the long run you will beat the market return. He said within the next 12 months and this came out in September so there are still several months to go. Europe is looking worse and worse and they arent figuring it out yet. No monetary union has ever worked in the past so I dont know why they assumed the Euro would. Greece will be the first to leave, or at least if they are smart they will. Then others will follow.
Stock market is now in a micro uptrend, they are claiming good job growth as well. The missing piece of the “recovery” holding was jobs. If those jobs prove to be more than seasonal spikes in employment we will continue higher. I’d also really want to see bond yields soar indicating that bond money is moving into equities, something we haven’t seen all along this “recovery”.
I would suggest either waiting for the green support or for the red resistance to break and act as support before buying personally. JMHO of course.
Silver has a chance at this being a simple reversion to the mean but as exponential as the liftoff was I will be surprised if that becomes reality. Often a probe that far beyond standard deviations leads to a correction equally forceful. As always, it will be interesting.
How are you all positioned? Thoughts on silver or the broad market?
Flip a coin? Either the Goldman crooks have shares they are trying to unload here or they are echoing what I suggested earlier this month. What did I suggest? That a breakdown in Bonds due to negative/near negative yields being so unattractive could trigger a stampede & break latent inflationary gains within equity class assets.
